Probing the engineered sandwich network of vertically aligned carbon nanotube–reduced graphene oxide composites for high performance electromagnetic interference shielding applications Avanish Pratap Singh a , Monika Mishra a , Daniel P. Hashim b , T.N. Narayanan c , Myung Gwan Hahm d , Pawan Kumar a , Jaya Dwivedi a , Garima Kedawat e , Ankit Gupta a , Bhanu Pratap Singh a , Amita Chandra f , Robert Vajtai b , S.K. Dhawan a, * , Pulickel M. Ajayan b , Bipin Kumar Gupta a, * a CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi 110 012, India b Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, United States c TIFR-Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad 500 075, India d Advanced Functional Thin Films Department, Surface Technology Division, Korea Institute of Materials Science, Gyeongnam 642831, Republic of Korea e Department of Physics, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur 302 055, India f Department of Physics & Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 8 July 2014 Accepted 18 December 2014 Available online 24 December 2014 ABSTRACT Herein, we developed a strategy for fabrication of iron oxide infiltrated vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT forest) sandwiched with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets network for high performance electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding application which offers a new avenue in this area. Such engineered sandwiched network exhibits enhanced shielding effectiveness compared to conventional EMI shielding materi- als. This network of exotic carbons demonstrates the shielding effectiveness value more than 37 dB (>99.98% attenuation) in Ku-band (12.4–18 GHz), which is greater than the recommended limit (30 dB) for techno-commercial applications. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Electromagnetic interference (EMI) among electronic equipments is a side-effect of their operation and it has emerged as a serious problem. Because, it has become one of the main causes for the degradation in the performance of electronic system [1–3]. EMI is not only harmful for the operation of electronic devices but may also be badly affecting the health of human beings [4]. Picture flickering or noise dis- tortions in television, radios and laptop screens by cellular phone signals or wireless are some live examples of EMI in our daily life. Moreover, EMI shielding has become more prominent for devices operating at microwave frequency such as telecommunication, TV picture transmission, weather http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2014.12.065 0008-6223/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding authors: Fax: +91 11 45609310. E-mail addresses: skdhawan@mail.nplindia.ernet.in (S.K. Dhawan), bipinbhu@yahoo.com (B.K. Gupta). CARBON 85 (2015) 79 – 88 Available at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/carbon